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- Title:
- Native Cooking by 1610 (Part D)
- Description:
- The peoples of islands that for the first time would be united (as the Spanish political entity Filipinas) had been evolving independent of each other. They spoke different languages, followed their own religions and leaders. What offered them similarities were wild plants, fish, and forest animals identified as edible. Similar but not always identical varieties of cultivated botanicals were added to island diets. They are the foundational ingredients of Philippine cuisine, as are some of the ways in which they were prepared. In 1609 there was SIGANG, fish cooked with salt in water; LAGA, eggs cooked with honey and milk; SANTAN, coconut milk mixed with honey; BOLOTAGAC, coconut milk cooked well with a little salt. That same year, Antonio Morga wrote that natives liked to eat “rotten fish.” Two centuries later, Jose Rizal was incensed by Morga’s comment. He felt Philippine cooking had been insulted. Perhaps Morga meant fermented fish? One form is bagoong. The earliest appearance of the word BAGOONG in a Philippine historical reference could be 1613. It is defined as fish or shrimp fermented in salt in the entry of Fr. San Buenaventura for “salmuera” (brining solution). Fish and shrimp paste (bagoong) is common in cuisine throughout insular Asian neighbourhoods. It is a flavourer for both cooking and dipping sauce. Bagoong’s byproduct is a liquid that rises to the top of its slush. In the Philippine National Language it is called PATIS. Romans had a salter sauce similar to patis called “garum” and “liquamen.” They were made with salt plus fish scraps and small fish like smelt, mullet, sprat and wolffish. Mark Kurlansky in SALT writes that Asian sauce developed independent of the European types. Garum was an alternative to plain salt in Roman cooking during the 1st Century BCE, the time of Apicius the gourmand.
- Subjects:
- Philippine cuisine Sigang Laga Santan Bolotagac Salt
- Exhibition:
- 100 Philippine Food
- Source:
- Insulae Indiae Orientalis (Islands of the East Indies). Gerhard Mercator/Jodicus Hondius. c. 1630 [1613]
- Type:
- Image;Still Image
- Format:
- image/jpeg
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "Native Cooking by 1610 (Part D)", Philippine Food History, Felice P. Sta. Maria
- Reference Link:
- felicepstamaria.net/items/coll135.html